St. Gereon's Basilica and the end of my week long headache

2+

That was the grade I received for my B1 level exam. Of course, at first I had no idea what that meant. After finishing the exam on Friday, I felt I did rather poorly. After hearing the grading scale was based on 1-4, I thought it must be similar to grade point averages in US universities. 2+? Well... okay, bad but not THAT bad.

Then I noticed I had received a 1- for the listening comprehension of the exam. I KNEW I did well on that portion of the exam. And indeed, I only missed one answer. So it was time to switch my thinking around. 2+? 2+ is pretty damn good, in my opinion. And especially after I spent the week confined to the apartment, reviewing and prepping for the test all while suffering from a terrible cold that probably didn't really go away until a few days ago. The speaking portion of the test was a lot of fun, especially when I must have sounded like Droopy. I'm glad I got the exam out of the way. You can now label me "intermediate."

By the way, if anyone is looking for a copy of an exam to practice with (or if you're just feeling sadistic), click here to download one. It was about as difficult as the actual one I took and made for good preparation.

After the exam, I had a few hours to spare before we went out to celebrate my results. The weather was cold but sunny and I could feel my head cold starting to go away. I grabbed a coffee and a brotchen and decided to talk a little walk in the fresh air.

Near the school is the large Romanesque basilica of St. Gereon's.

In front of the entrance (the opposite side of what is shown above) is a quiet little square. Its a nice place to take a little break if you're wandering around.

I sat here, drank my coffee and enjoyed the brotchen while recording the 12 o'clock chimes. Click below to listen.

StGereonsNoon.m4a

Here's some photos from inside the Basilica, parts of which date back to 1067, although building on the site actually dates to around 380AD.

Apparently the ten sided dome above the main aisle is the largest dome built in the West between the construction of the Hagia Sophia in the sixth century and the Duomo of Florence in the fifteenth. So I got that going for me. But don't get too excited, I forgot to take a photo of it. You're gonna have to do your own search if you want to see the dome.

I believe this is what your textbooks meant when they said "Romanesque."

Below, in the crypt, you'll find the remains of St. Gereon and his soldiers who were massacred by order of the Roman Emperor. According to legend, they were beheaded for refusing to make sacrifices to pagan gods to obtain victory in a battle.

Here's my favorite part of the Wikipedia entry, "Along with other saints who were beheaded, he is invoked by those suffering from migraine headaches." The irony. Then again, might that be extended to colds as well? After all, the terrible head cold I had for the previous week disappeared shortly after my visit. Hmmmm....